Empathy
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Is infant empathy linked with later externalizing problems?
Until recently, it has been assumed that young infants cannot feel empathy for others.1 However, emerging data suggest that this might not actually be the case.2 Now, Yael Paz and colleagues have examined empathy development during the first years of life, analysing data from 165 infants involved in a longitudinal, prospective study.
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Female Pioneers: Tamsin Ford CBE on psychologist and analyst Alice Miller
To celebrate International Women’s Day, three ACAMH luminaries shine the spotlight on the female pioneers of child and adolescent psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis, they most admire. “Miller stands out because she demonstrated critical thought and was prepared to openly change her stance in the light of her research findings.”
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Children at risk of developing antisocial behaviours show deficits in affective empathy
Researchers in the Netherlands and UK have monitored cardiovascular and electrodermal activity and eye tracking to assess affective and cognitive empathy in children at high risk of engaging in criminal behaviours.
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Low empathy in adolescent boys predicts violent behaviour in adulthood
Low empathy and low resting heart rate are established, independent risk factors of antisocial behaviour. Now, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh have studied whether an interaction between these two factors during adolescence might mediate violent behaviour in early adulthood.
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Compensating for ASD: masking the truth?
“Compensation” is a phenomenon by which individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show improvements in overt symptoms, namely their understanding of others (“theory-of-mind”, ToM), despite persisting deficits at the cognitive and neurobiological levels.
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Mental health workers have more empathy
Mental health workers have greater empathy than physicians or other professionals, according to a study from Favaloro University, Buenos Aires.
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